The Artist Deconstructed
by buttercups3
Summary: Oneshot: Angela is considering breaking it off with Wendell and goes to Dr. Sweets for advice, even if she won't admit it. Takes place during The Death of the Queen Bee and foreshadows The Witch in the Wardrobe. T for talk of pregnancy scares!


_This is a kind of missing scene for The Death of the Queen Bee, involving a conversation between Angela and Sweets. I always wanted Angela to talk to Sweets after she discussed her feelings about Wendell with Dr. Brennan and before she broke off her relationship with Wendell. It's my theory that Sweets' advice over the years was quite integral to Hodgela finally working out. Here is a one shot making this vibe more blatant.  
_

_Disclaimer: I reap no rewards other than the joy of writing from these characters. They belong to Bones. _

_Spoilers: TDotQB, TWitW, The Proof in the Pudding. For loyal readers there is a reference here to my story The Boy in the Field, but you needn't have read that to read this._

_Thanks to those who read and enjoy, silently or publicly! _

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Lance Sweets dashed out of the near monsoon pummeling Washington and into the Royal Diner to meet Angela, poised by the window. Her lovely eyes followed the rain as it cast its silken sheets over the glass, obscuring the world outside. Sweets shook off and hung his coat on the rack by the door as he surveyed her body language: tense, sad, un-Angela-like. She had asked him to coffee, and now he realized that this was not just a friendly chat.

Lance waved a little goofily and Angela smiled as a teacher would smile at an adolescent student. Friendly, but a little condescending. This made Lance a bit sad. He wanted so much to fit in and always had the sense that Angela occupied a cooler echelon than him—rather like Booth but without Booth's attempts at teasing inclusion. He strode over as he ran his fingers through his wet curls. He didn't notice the attractive auburn-haired woman at the counter eying him hopefully.

"Hey, Angela. Coffee please?" he politely asked the waitress who'd appeared.

"Wow, it's really coming down out there," Angela noted, gazing at Sweets' wet head.

"Tell me about it. Any part of me that wasn't covered by coat feels like it went through the rinse cycle. Thank you," he added to the waitress, receiving his coffee gratefully. Its warmth spread to his shivering limbs and gave him a little more courage with this gorgeous, untouchable woman seated before him.

"Sweets, I was wondering if you could tell me your opinion on something. Not advice—I mean, I'll do what I want to do, but you know, I'm often interested in your perspective."

"Mm-hm," Sweets responded, a touch annoyed. Angela had listened to his advice in the past more than once; she just didn't like to admit it.

The artist tossed her wavy black hair over her shoulder, revealing a creamy, mocha neck. Lance looked away.

"I had a bit of a pregnancy scare…and I didn't tell Wendell," she blurted, typical Angela.

"Oh!" Sweets exclaimed, startled. Never in a million guesses would he have landed on this topic for their afternoon coffee. "I see."

"Don't look so shocked, Sweets. Wendell and I are having sex, you know."

"I'm not…I mean, I assumed you were." Lance was growing nervous, "Not that I thought about it." He cleared his throat.

"Right, so it's not bad that I didn't tell him, is it? I mean, I'm wasn't pregnant, so it really wasn't any of his business."

"Angela, I think you know that you wouldn't be asking me about it if you really believed that. You want to tell me when this happened and under what circumstances?" Again Lance became embarrassed and struggled to correct himself, "I mean the false alarm, not the…possible conception part." His cheeks reddened to deep crimson.

"Boy, you sure are squirmy. Don't you have to talk about sex with your patients all the time?" she laughed.

Sweets giggled a little. "Well, fairly often, I guess. You wouldn't believe some of the things people have said to me in therapy. There are some strange sexual preferences out there!" He made a face.

"Well Wendell and I were just having normal sex that led to a normal pregnancy scare," Angela affirmed.

"I mean, were you having protected sex?"

"Oh my God, Sweets. What is this, high school health class? We had it covered. Literally."

Sweets fought the urge to look repelled by the intimate picture of Wendell forming in his mind. "Ok, too much info. Moving on. When did this happen?"

"You remember that night when we got locked down at the Jeffersonian with JFK's (or whoever's) remains?"

Lance was putting together the pieces. "Ohhhh, yes. I remember. Dr. Saroyan was holding a pregnancy test! She was trying to hide it, but…so that was yours! Dr. Brennan told me that she thought it was Michelle's. I assumed when I didn't hear anything else that that storm had passed."

Angela was looking at Lance sidelong. "How do you know what a pregnancy test looks like? You've seen those 'First Response' commercials?" She snorted.

"No…Daisy and I had our own little incident around Christmas," he answered curtly.

"Oh. I'm sorry, Sweets. But apparently everything turned out alright," she offered.

"Well, she's not having a baby." Sweets crossed his arms.

Angela tried to read his expression. "Wait, you _wanted_ a baby?"

"Can we just stick to the topic at hand?" Lance asked impatiently. "You thought you were pregnant over 2 months ago, and you said nothing to Wendell."

"Correct. But it was a false positive."

"How did you feel when you thought you were pregnant?" Sweets asked shrink-ily.

"Really? C'mon, Sweets."

"I'm serious, Angela. Do you want my opinion or not?" She nodded. "Then give me the whole story."

"I felt…I don't know. I've always wanted children. A lot of children! Like six! But it just didn't feel right with Wendell."

"Would you have had the baby if you'd been pregnant?" Lance sucked in a little too much coffee and coughed. He was remembering how Daisy had been pretty adamant that she'd want to abort; she wanted to focus on her career. It had devastated him to even consider that possibility.

"I don't know. I honestly don't know. As I told Hodgins, having a baby with someone connects you to that person for life—via a little human soul. It would have been very strange with Wendell."

"And yet, you're still with Wendell, still sexually active, I assume. That you could get pregnant with his child is still within the realm of possibilities. And wait, you told Hodgins about this?" Sweets caught on, his eyes widening.

"Hey! One thing at a time. Are you suggesting that I shouldn't have sex with the man I'm dating just because there's like a 3% chance that I might get pregnant?"

"No. _I'm_ suggesting that whenever we give ourselves in that way to another human being, we already _are_ sharing our soul with them. It's the most intimate act one can experience with another human being, Angela. The fact that it can produce a baby is almost incidental."

"Now you're talking crazy! Your opinion of sex is naïve and antiquated, Sweets. No offense. I mean—you're young! You still have some starry-eyed idea of sex. Sex is fun! It's playful! It's…exercise. It's just like having an intimate conversation with someone, only a whole lot more enjoyable!"

"Angela, _you_ don't even believe what you're saying. I can see it on your face." Sweets was resolute.

Angela huffed a little and twisted a salt shaker. "How could you know what I believe!" She responded in a low, angry voice. "I've dated a lot more than you have, Sweets. I know what I'm talking about." She raised her pretty chin in defiance.

Sweets was a little wounded by the truth of her statement. He _had_ only dated a few people—a great insecurity of his when counseling people. He believed that women didn't really care for him. He reminded himself of how lucky he was to have Daisy. She was quirky, but she loved him and told him he was a 'beautiful person.' He never thought someone would say those words to him.

"So…you told Hodgins?" Lance tried gently after a brief, hurt silence.

"Yeah, I told him that night at the lab, before Cam had retested the results. You know what Hodgins said?" She asked, warming back up to Sweets suddenly.

"What?"

"He said he'd help me raise Wendell's child! He said he'd be there for me. That he loved me. He said: I'm your guy!" She looked genuinely shocked and almost teary as she relayed this.

Lance smiled a little to himself. Hodgins was a great guy. On the surface, he was petulant, but at heart he was very devoted to his loved ones.

"That's…wow. Hodgins is totally solid."

"Yeah, and then just today Hodgins accidentally told Wendell about the pregnancy scare, thinking we'd already discussed it."

"Oops. And how did Wendell respond?"

"He was great. He was all about duty and honor…" Angela looked less than thrilled.

"So all chivalry and no romance?"

"Well…in a way."

"Angela, when I thought Daisy was pregnant, the first image that came into my mind was how completely breathtaking she'd look like with a little baby in her arms. A little person, who was part of her and part of me. I just wanted to hold her, to hold onto that idea of us facing the greatest challenge and the most rewarding journey in life together. I just felt…overcome with love." Lance was beaming as he spoke these words. He was positively joyous. After all, he was now engaged to Daisy, though Angela didn't know it. "So, yeah, maybe the timing wasn't right, but it wasn't about taking responsibility for the consequences of my actions. I mean, I would do that for a partner, sure. It was about the profound, transforming love I experience when I'm with Daisy."

Angela's mouth dropped open a little. "Wow, Sweets. I didn't know you were that serious about her. Well, I guess I suspected. You're a pretty passionate person." She said this kindly, and Sweets blushed.

"Don't you think it's time you let Wendell go? He's such a good guy. You're not really being fair to him."

"But…Brennan says that anthropology teaches us that guys like Wendell…"

Sweets interrupted. "Really? You're going to quote Dr. Brennan about matters of the heart? I mean, you once told me you were frightened when you and Dr. Brennan appeared to be in agreement about your breakup with Roxy." Lance shifted and looked right into the glassy brown eyes of his coworker. "You have a soul mate, Angela. You always have. Why are you wasting your time?"

Angela soberly put down the salt shaker she'd been attacking again. "Hodgins says you helped him through some tough times…I assume that included when we broke up."

Lance wouldn't bite. What he had counseled Hodgins was between him and the bug doctor. "I think we both know that Hodgins and Wendell are made of equally good stuff. It's not about the quality of the man."

"I should break it off with Wendell," Angela said pensively.

"You should do what you think is right and then give yourself some time to think about who you really are, Angela. You want to be this woman who drifts in and out of relationships and still enjoys their full meaning. That's not the way this works. You _know_ that, because you have really deep relationships with Dr. Brennan, Hodgins, Dr. Saroyan, Booth, and…Well, you have these amazing connections in your life."

"And you, Sweets. I have you, too," she interrupted.

Lance flinched a little, because he had been too shy to include himself. But he looked at her gratefully. "Well that's true love."

"You're right." Angela swept up and kissed Lance on the cheek (for the second time in his life) in a purely platonic manner, but it made Lance red enough to stop traffic. She departed. He suddenly felt confident that she was going to do the right thing, and he even reserved hope that he'd soon be hearing that Hodgins and Angela were back together.

Sweets smiled sheepishly as he touched his cheek where Angela had kissed him and then finished his coffee.


End file.
